Richard Kettleborough: Richard Kettleborough will become England’s most capped on-field Test umpire when he stands in the second Test between West Indies and Australia starting in Grenada on Thursday. The Sheffield-born Kettleborough, whose Test career began in Galle 15 years ago, will umpire his 93rd on-field Test and in doing so overtake his original mentor David Shepherd.
“It’s a big honour. I honestly never imagined it would happen, but I’m very proud of my achievements. To overtake the late, great David Shepherd – who was one of my idols growing up – is something I’m very proud of. I actually stood with ‘Shep’ in a County Championship game in 2005 at Scarborough. That was a great experience.
“I’d only been on the list for three years, but when I first started with the ECB in 2002, I was very lucky to have a lot of help from guys like David Shepherd, John Hampshire, Mervyn Kitchen, Peter Willey, and Neil Mallender. All those guys were a great help to me, and continued to be so in the years that followed,” Kettleborough told ecb.co.uk.
